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ERIC Number: EJ1070834
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Sep
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1098-2140
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Comments on "Getting out the Vote with Evaluative Thinking"
Henry, Gary T.
American Journal of Evaluation, v36 n3 p401-402 Sep 2015
In this commentary, Gary Henry explains that the Danes have got it right, again. Not only is their voter turnout high to begin with, but they are evaluating ways to increase voter turnout with "random variation" to accurately assess the effects of the innovations. In the Danish 2009 municipal elections, 65.8% turned out to vote, which compares favorably to the landmark turnout of 63.3% in the United States for the presidential election that pitted Barack Obama against John McCain and with the more typical 2000 U.S. presidential election, which drew 54.2% of voters. Henry asserts that the takeaway from ''Getting Out the Vote With Evaluative Thinking'' by Yosef Bhatti, Jens Olaf Dahlgaard, Jonas Hansen and Kasper Hansen (Bhatti et al., 2015) is that the Danes designed an innovation to increase turnout based on evidence about voting behavior--and they implemented an evaluation with a high degree of validity to produce compelling findings that influenced policy decisions in a way that will likely lead to even higher voter turnout. Henry concludes that the example that the Danes have offered is one that evaluators might more frequently and fruitfully apply to improving social outcomes through evaluation.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Denmark
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A